"A catastrophic disruption of the global supply chain struck this afternoon when the world's 7th largest container shipping company was cut off by its banks, refused entry to ports worldwide, filed Bankruptcy and had assets seized!

The ramifications of this will be fast and utterly disastrous, worldwide, as manufacturers cease receiving raw materials to make things, retailers will not be getting finished goods to re-stock store shelves or clothing racks. Worse, parts shipments in every imaginable industry will cease receiving parts for the duration of this disruption. Everything from home appliances, to cars, trucks and trains could see a total inability to make repairs or perhaps even manufacture, because parts shipments have halted.

This is the type of unexpected "Black Swan Event" that could quickly topple stock markets worldwide, as Investors see companies unable to manufacture, process or repair things. No manufacturing or assembly means no shipment of finished goods. No shipments mean no sales. No sales mean no money. No money means no companies!

Details: Today the largest casualty finally emerged on Wednesday when South Korea's Hanjin Shipping, the country's largest shipping firm and the world's seventh-biggest container carrier, filed for court receivership after losing the support of its banks, leaving its assets frozen as ports from China to Spain denied access to its vessels.

For those unfamiliar with the company, here is a brief overview from its website:

"Hanjin Shipping is Korea's largest and one of the world’s top ten container carriers that operates some 70 liner and tramper services around the globe transporting over 100 million tons of cargo annually. Its fleet consists of some 150 containerships and bulk carriers.

With 4 regional headquarters in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South East & West Asia, approximately 5,000 global staffs as well as container terminals in world’s major ports contribute to Hanjin Shipping’s world-class logistics network around the world."

As Reuters reports, banks led by state-run Korea Development Bank withdrew backing for the world's seventh-largest container carrier on Tuesday, saying a funding plan by its parent group was inadequate to tackle debt that stood at 5.6 trillion won ($5 billion) at the end of 2015.

South Korea's biggest shipping firm, announced the filing for receivership and a request to the court to freeze its assets, which the Seoul Central District Court planned to grant, a judge told Reuters. As part of the company's insolvency process, the court will now decide whether Hanjin Shipping should remain as a going concern or be dissolved, a process that usually takes one or two months but is expected to be accelerated in Hanjin's case, the judge said. A bankruptcy for Hanjin Shipping would be the largest ever for a container shipper in terms of capacity, according to consultancy Alphaliner, exceeding the 1986 collapse of United States Lines.

Coming as no surprise to anyone who has followed the persistent decline in worldside trade, global shipping firms have been swamped by overcapacity and sluggish demand, with Hanjin booking a net loss of 473 billion won in the first half of the year. South Korea's ailing shipbuilders and shipping firms, which for decades were engines of its export-driven economy, are in the midst of a wrenching restructuring. According to Reuters, KDB's decision to stop backing Hanjin Shipping shows the government is taking a tougher stance with troubled corporate groups.

The fallout from the country's unprecedented bankruptcy invoked a statement from South Korea's Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, who said that "the government will swiftly push forth corporate restructuring following the rule that companies must figure out how to survive and find competitiveness on their own while taking responsibility." To be sure, this decision is a fresh breath of air in a world in which mega-corprations across the globe have become "too big to fail" by default, and in many cases anticipate a government bail-out.

According to South Korea's Financial Services Commission, Hyundai Merchant Marine, the country's second-largest shipping line, will look to acquire its rival's healthy assets, including profit-making vessels, overseas business networks and key personnel. A Hyundai Merchant Marine spokesman told Reuters nothing had been decided about the potential acquisition of Hanjin assets and that the firm will hold talks with KDB. Hyundai Merchant Marine is also in the process of a voluntary debt restructuring.

The question now is whether as a result of the bankruptcy process there will be an unexpected failure in the global supply-chain: South Korea's oceans ministry estimates a two-to three-month delay in the shipping of some Korean goods that were to be transported by Hanjin Shipping, and plans to announce in September cargo-handling measures which could include Hyundai Merchant Marine taking over some routes, a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Making matters worse, Reuters adds that KDB's move to pull the plug was already having an impact on Hanjin's operations, with the company's various shipping assets already frozen. Ports including those in Shanghai and Xiamen in China, Valencia, Spain, and Savannah in the U.S. state of Georgia had blocked access to Hanjin ships on concerns they would not be able to pay fees, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

Another vessel, the Hanjin Rome, was seized in Singapore late on Monday by a creditor, according to court information. "Now Hanjin must do everything it can to protect its clients' cargoes and make sure they are not delayed to their destination, by filing injunctions to block seizures in all the countries where its ships are located," said Bongiee Joh, managing director of the Korea Shipowners' Association.

Finally, while jarring Hanjin's bankrtupcy was inevitable: shipping industry economics have deteriorated. Charter rates for medium-sized container ships have dropped from around $26,000 a day in 2010 to $13,000 per day now. Container rates from Shanghai to the U.S west coast have more than halved since then, from around $2,000 per 40-foot container in January 2010 to $596 per 40-foot box last week, data from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange shows. Shares in Hanjin Shipping have been suspended after plunging 24% on Tuesday.

The global implications from the bankruptcy are unknown: if, as expected, the company's ships remain "frozen" and inaccessible for weeks if not months, the impact on global supply chains will be devastating, potentially resulting in a cascading waterfall effect, whose impact on global economies could be severe as a result of the worldwide logistics chaos. The good news is that both economists and corporations around the globe, both those impacted and others, will now have yet another excuse on which to blame the "unexpected" slowdown in both profits and economic growth in the third quarter.”

Young suns still lie within dusty NGC 7129, some 3,000 light-years away toward the royal constellation Cepheus. While these stars are at a relatively tender age, only a few million years old, it is likely that our own Sun formed in a similar stellar nursery some five billion years ago. Most noticeable in the sharp image are the lovely bluish dust clouds that reflect the youthful starlight. But the compact, deep red crescent shapes are also markers of energetic, young stellar objects.

Click image for larger size.

Known as Herbig-Haro objects, their shape and color is characteristic of glowing hydrogen gas shocked by jets streaming away from newborn stars. Paler, extended filaments of reddish emission mingling with the bluish clouds are caused by dust grains effectively converting the invisible ultraviolet starlight to visible red light through photoluminesence. Ultimately the natal gas and dust in the region will be dispersed, the stars drifting apart as the loose cluster orbits the center of the Galaxy. The processing of this remarkable composite image has revealed the faint red strands of emission at the upper right. They are recently recognized as a likely supernova remnant and are currently being analyzed by Bo Reipurth (Univ. Hawaii) who obtained the image data at the Subaru telescope. At the estimated distance of NGC 7129, this telescopic view spans over 40 light-years.”

"Britain's Royal Society, established in 1660, was the first formal scientific association. It's early membership included such luminaries as Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton. They took as their motto Nullius in verba, which can be translated roughly as "Take no one's word for it."

And thus ended, in that gathering at least, a millennium-and-a-half of a European intellectual tradition based on quoting authorities as proofs of arguments. It always helped, of course, to have Aristotle on your side. Or Augustine. Or Aquinas. Or best yet, the divinely inspired scriptures. No matter which side of an argument you were on, you lined up your authorities like soldiers on a battlefield.

Citation of authority. A way of knowing that advanced human knowledge not one whit. Always looking backwards. Never ahead. And along comes "Nullius in verba." A new way of knowing. The only arbiter of truth is the interrogation of nature. The experiment. Data that does not come tagged with some illuminary's name. Data that can be reproduced by believers and skeptics alike.

And what happened when the new way of knowing was applied to miracles? They vanished. It turns out that there is not a shred of non-anecdotal, reproducible evidence for the miraculous, no supposed manifestations of divine intervention that cannot be explained within the natural order. I believe it might have been Francis Bacon who said that it is a common human attribute to mistake coincidence for causality.

And there, I quoted an authority, and a smart one at that. But the fact that Bacon (or whoever) said it carries no weight unless what he said matches our experimentally controlled observations of human behavior.”

"They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,Love and desire and hate:I think they have no portion in us afterWe pass the gate.They are not long, the days of wine and roses;Out of a misty dreamOur path emerges for a while, then closesWithin a dream."

- Ernest Dowson

“Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam” is a quotation from Horace’s“First Book of Odes”: “The shortness of life prevents us from entertaining far-off hopes.”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)— “President Barack Obama defended his decision on Wednesday to issue a payment of five billion dollars to Mexico to compel that nation to retain custody of Donald J. Trump. The payment, which will be delivered to the Mexican government in hard American currency by Wednesday afternoon, will insure that Trump will remain in Mexico for the rest of his natural life. “I have been assured by the government of Mexico that Mr. Trump will be well taken care of and, if he proves to be a productive member of their society, will be provided a pathway to Mexican citizenship,” Obama said.

While the transfer of funds to Mexico sparked howls of protest from some Trump supporters, it was hailed by congressional Democrats, as well as by over a hundred Republicans currently running for reëlection, including Arizona Senator John McCain. The President bristled at the suggestion that paying Mexico to keep Trump was “reverse ransom” and an extravagant use of taxpayer money. “There is only one accurate word for this payment: a bargain,” he said.”

"Do you smirk when you hear someone question the official stories of Orlando, San Bernardino, Paris or Nice? Do you feel superior to 2,500 architects and engineers, to firefighters, commercial and military pilots, physicists and chemists, and former high government officials who have raised doubts about 9/11? If so, you reflect the profile of a mind-controlled CIA stooge.

The term “conspiracy theory” was invented and put into public discourse by the CIA in 1964 in order to discredit the many skeptics who challenged the Warren Commission’s conclusion that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, who himself was assassinated while in police custody before he could be questioned. The CIA used its friends in the media to launch a campaign to make suspicion of the Warren Commission report a target of ridicule and hostility. This campaign was “one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.”

So writes political science professor Lance deHaven-Smith, who in his peer-reviewed book, “Conspiracy Theory in America,” published by the University of Texas Press, tells the story of how the CIA succeeded in creating in the public mind reflexive, automatic, stigmatization of those who challenge government explanations. This is an extremely important and readable book, one of those rare books with the power to break you out of The Matrix.

Professor deHaven-Smith is able to write this book because the original CIA Dispatch #1035-960, which sets out the CIA plot, was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Apparently, the bureaucracy did not regard a document this old as being of any importance. The document is marked “Destroy when no longer needed,” but somehow wasn’t. CIA Dispatch #1035-960 is reproduced in the book.

The success that the CIA has had in stigmatizing skepticism of government explanations has made it difficult to investigate State Crimes Against Democracy (SCAD) such as 9/11. With the public mind programmed to ridicule “conspiracy kooks,” even in the case of suspicious events such as 9/11 the government can destroy evidence, ignore prescribed procedures, delay an investigation, and then form a political committee to put its imprimatur on the official story. Professor deHaven-Smith notes that in such events as Kennedy’s assassination and 9/11 official police and prosecutorial investigations are never employed. The event is handed off to a political commission.

Professor deHaven-Smith’s book supports what I have told my readers: the government controls the story from the beginning by having the official explanation ready the moment a SCAD occurs. This makes any other explanation a “conspiracy theory.” This is the way Professor deHaven-Smith puts it:

“A SCAD approach to memes assumes further that the CIA and other possibly participating agencies are formulating memes well in advance of operations, and therefore SCAD memes appear and are popularized very quickly before any competing concepts are on the scene.”

The CIA’s success in controlling public perception of what our Founding Fathers would have regarded as suspicious events involving the government enables those in power positions within government to orchestrate events that serve hidden agendas. The events of September 11 created the new paradigm of endless war in behalf of a Washington-dominated world. The CIA’s success in controlling public perceptions has made it impossible to investigate elite political crimes. Consequently, it is now possible for treason to be official US government policy.

Professor deHaven-Smith’s book will tell you the story of the assassination of President Kennedy by elements of the US military, CIA, and Secret Service. Just as the Warren Commission covered up the State Crime Against Democracy, Professor deHaven-Smith shows why we should doubt the official 9/11 story. And anything else that the government tells us.

Read this book. It is short. It is affordable. It is reality preparation. It will innoculate you against being a dumbass, insouciant, brainwashed American. I am surprised that the CIA has not purchased the entire print run and burned the books. Perhaps the CIA feels secure from its success in brainwashing the public and does not believe that American democracy and accountable government can be restored."

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially refused to meet with Ukrainian President Poroshenko at the upcoming G-20 Summit in China. This means the "Normandy Format" of Diplomatic efforts has defacto ended. When diplomacy ends, war begins.

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov had earlier voiced about the possibility of the G20 summit in the Chinese city of Hangzhou meeting in "Normandy format". Ukraine is not a member of the G20, but Poroshenko in a telephone conversation suggested a meeting in China at the highest level. The meeting was not agreed upon, it was just an idea. However, after the recent events in Crimea, Putin refused to discuss even the possibility of such a meeting. Therefore, no "Normandy format" in Hangzhou.

This is a very serious development. The Normandy Format involved the Presidents of Russia, France, Ukraine and Germany meeting in marathon sessions to try to iron out a diplomatic resolution to hostilities in eastern Ukraine. The fact that the Normandy format has ended means diplomatic efforts at a solution have ended. When Diplomacy ends, war begins.

Look for war between Russia and Ukraine after the G-20 Summit in China ends on September 5.”

Biographical note: "George Orwell, 1903-1950, was the pen name used by British author and journalist Eric Arthur Blair. During most of his professional life time Orwell was best known for his journalism, both in the British press and in books such as "Homage to Catalonia," describing his activities during the Spanish Civil War, and "Down and Out in Paris and London," describing a period of poverty in these cities. Orwell is best remembered today for two of his novels, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four."

Description: Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely- and this is vividly and eloquently proved in Orwell's short novel. "Animal Farm" is a simple fable of great symbolic value, and as Orwell himself explained: "it is the history of a revolution that went wrong." The novel can be seen as the historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism, or as a mere fairy-tale; in any case it tells a good story that aims to prove that human nature and diversity prevent people from being equal and happy, or at least equally happy.

"Animal Farm" tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm animals rebel, drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to rule the farm themselves, on an equal basis. What the animals seem to have aimed at was a utopian sort of communism, where each would work according to his capacity, respecting the needs of others. The venture failed, and "Animal Farm" ended up being a dictatorship of pigs, who were the brightest, and most idle of the animals.

Orwell's mastery lies in his presentation of the horrors of totalitarian regimes, and his analysis of communism put to practice, through satire and simple story-telling. The structure of the novel is skillfully organized, and the careful reader may, for example, detect the causes of the unworkability of communism even from the first chapter. This is deduced from Orwell's description of the various animals as they enter the barn and take their seats to listen to the revolutionary preaching of Old Major, father of communism in Animal Farm. Each animal has different features and attitude; the pigs, for example, "settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform", which is a hint on their future role, whereas Clover, the affectionate horse" made a sort of wall" with her foreleg to protect some ducklings.

So, it appears that the revolution was doomed from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism as expressed by the motto "no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers." "When the animals drive out Mr. Jones, they create their "Seven Commandments" which ensure equality and prosperity for all the animals. The pigs, however, being the natural leaders, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda establish the rule of an elite of pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, the most revered and sinister pig.

"Animal Farm" successfully presents how the mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarian regimes, by showing how the pigs could make the other animals believe practically anything. Responsible for the propaganda was Squealer, a pig that "could turn black into white." Squealer managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." He managed to convince the other animals that it was for their sake that the pigs ate most of the apples and drank most of the milk, that leadership was "heavy responsibility" and therefore the animals should be thankful to Napoleon, that what they saw may have been something they "dreamed", and when everything else failed he would use the threat of "Jones returning" to silence the animals. In this simple but effective way, Orwell presents the tragedy and confusion of thought control to the extent that one seems better off simply believing that "Napoleon is always right".

Orwell's criticism of the role of the Church is also very effective. In Animal Farm, the Church is represented by Moses, a tame raven, who talks of "Sugarcandy Mountain", a happy country in the sky "where we poor animals shall rest forever from our labors". It is interesting to observe that when Old Major was first preaching revolutionary communism, Moses was sleeping in the barn, which satirizes the Church being caught asleep by communism. It is also important to note that the pig-dictators allowed and indirectly encouraged Moses; it seems that it suited the pigs to have the animals dreaming of a better life after death so that they wouldn't attempt to have a better life while still alive...

In "Animal Farm," Orwell describes how power turned the pigs from simple "comrades" to ruthless dictators who managed to walk on two legs, and carry whips. The story may be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime, or as a warning against political power games of an absolute nature and totalitarianism in general. For this reason, the story ends with a hair-raising warning to all humankind: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."

"The laws of the jungle are becoming important again as the life cycle of humanity continues to turn. Increasingly, it's survival of the fittest for both the have-nots and haves alike, whether they choose to realize this or not. In the jungle, it's 'do or die'- the laws of natural selection. The weak and less endowed must stay ahead of the strong or be eaten- and they know it. For some time now however, increasing numbers of human beings have become desensitized to rules of Mother Nature due to technological innovation that has made life 'easy' for the masses like never before. And we are still in this false bubble, however the predators continue take prey.

Times are getting tough again however, where the life cycle of benefits associated with technological innovation (money printing included) are being challenged, now forcing increasing numbers back into the jungle. More and more people are beginning to realize we are returning to the ways of the jungle as they are being disenfranchised from easy money existence- where only the top 1% and their dogs (government bureaucrats, private sector agents, etc.) are still feeling the benefit of sterilized money printing. This is understandable of course, because consistent with the laws of the jungle, if you threaten the dominant animals, they will eat you, even their own.

So this is essentially what is happening out there these days, where whether you know it yet or not- if you want to survive- the idea is not to be eaten. In the West, and in terms of 'technological innovation' as it applies to the financial markets, which in reality is more 'desperate intervention' than 'basic innovation' (the basic innovation was money debasement itself, discovered long ago, with all new variations attempts at deception), increasingly complex financial engineering has been the status quo's modus operandi to continue the pilfering of the masses, with negative interest rate policy (NIRP) the latest example. Again however, as always, the question is, 'how long will this variation of sterilized currency debasement last'; and, 'if it fails, would this be the straw that breaks the camel's back, propelling modern men back towards our more primitive origins'?

The onset of World War III (WWIII) would answer these questions readily, as competition for scarce resources intensifies into a truly 'dog eat dog' world. And if Hillary gets into the White House this fall, we should see proliferation in this regard quickly not long afterwards, as she endeavors to reward her neocon supporters, defense contractors, etc.- the US war machine. This is of course why Russia and China have been scrambling to protect themselves from these animals, because they are so 'out of it' now they actually think they can profit from some kind of sterilized war (no nukes?), like NIRP (economic war imposed on both foreign and domestic targets), with the delusion factor now running so high- if the public were not so high (distracted with drugs, money, whatever)- they might be able to see clearly- making them justifiably terrified.

So again, as the title of this piece suggests, we had better 'do something' about these nut bars or it could be war quite soon- a war we cannot win. Trump is putting himself out there as the solution to this situation, however as the alluded to above, what happens when the competition for scarce resources intensifies globally anyway? You should know this is China's grand plan long-term, better know as the Silk Road. They intend to overtake America in every way (military, currency, etc.), which is understandable because it's natural- the laws of the jungle at work. That said, with China's aspirations perhaps not so clandestine, still, what the neocons have planned is far worse because they are fighting the 'natural order'- because The Banana Republic of America is broke.

Such thought is evidenced in the fact the global decentralization process continues to accelerate. Because when people are facing increasing adversity, which is the case now evidenced in declining economies, there first reaction is to protect themselves- or 'pull their horns in'- especially once people figure out the central planners that were supposed to be taking care of them are just in it for themselves. What's more, the corruption is pervasive and everybody knows it. All over the world, with the benefits of money printing for the masses now fading, people can see embedded bureaucrats have only their own best interests at heart, and are systematically working to detach themselves from present hi-level hierarchies, including The American Empire and European Union, better know as 'The West'. (i.e. it's not Putin we need protection from, it's our own neo-fascist governments.)

But the spin masters of the West will not go quietly however- I can assure you of that. The police state, surveillance state- whatever you want to call out of control fascist bureaucrats hell bent on stealing the public blind- they like life just fine the way it is, and are more than willing to take yours to keep it. Know why police have immunity in shootings, fatal and not? Because the oligarchs and bureaucrats need their dogs to protect them from an increasingly angry public. The straw that will break the camel's back in terms of 'blow back' associated with this moving forward will be decided in the election. If Hillary is elected and America goes to war, with the draft (including women) invoked, just like Vietnam, lookout, because if you thought the protests of the 60's and 70's were something - 'you ain't seen nothing yet'.

Young people today are more aware of the fact war is just a tool of the 'moneyed interests', and they will rebel. Emotions are going to explode on this issue because youthful bubbles of 'entitlement' and 'social media distraction' will quickly disappear when millennials realize the 'greedy old bastards' want us to die so the stock market doesn't crash. Again, if Trump gets in and starts cutting taxes like he's proposing, stocks could see quite a surge going into next year without going to war- so you young voters better get off your butts in November. For traders, this is of course the most important thing you can watch in my opinion, because if Trump gets in, stocks could soar, temporary as any such rally might be. Because Trump will not be able to cut taxes with national debt levels so high, especially if interest rates begin to rise in earnest, which could be coming sooner than most think.

So what are Trumps chances of getting in, with the status quo hell bent on keeping him out? What's been happening is odds are improving the more desperate the status quo gets. Because like the Brexit vote, the 'plebs are pissed', and they are voting to kick the establishment in the teeth. And this won't change no matter what happens between now and November. Stocks crash- it won't matter because increasing numbers of people voting for Trump are being disenfranchised every day. In fact, a stock market crash right in front of the election would likely do nothing but help Trump because it would look like the status quo is out of favor and losing its grip. What's more, if people were actually listening to what Hillary is saying these days, promising to raise taxes on the middle class, one would think she would not be ahead in the poles, and perhaps in reality she's not. Perhaps the polls are a fiction, just like the stock market.

How can this be? Answer: It's the 'Hillary Effect'. The status quo boys simply will not allow stocks to go down in front of the election if they can help it- because this helps Hillary- so prop desks are on high alert. The question then arises, 'can they keep it up right into November'? These are the most desperate people in the world, so it's definitely possible if they can 'stuff Trump', where a 'full court press' in this regard is underway as we speak. As mentioned previously, only if it becomes clear prior to the election will the rats jump ship prematurely. This could happen at debate time, the first coming on (Monday) September 26. Trump is the superior debater- so this could be interesting. And then there's Julian Assange, who is doing his best to destroy the status quo/Clinton machine, who could release those 33,000 lost emails that mysteriously disappeared around this time, that won't help matters for the Hillary camp as well.

So be careful going into crash time- September and October- as conditions are ripe for some unexpected action this year. Remember- most think the government won't let anything nasty happen going into the election. Others think the markets are too big to fail this time around. This is a recipe for disaster for these types.”

"There’s trouble up here in the mountains. We’ve come back to the ranch to see if there is anything we can do about it.

Trouble on the ranch: To bring you up to date, former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner granted certain ‘indigenous peoples'- or originarios- the right to claim title to their traditional lands. To whom and what this legislation was meant to apply is a matter of dispute. Everyone is pretty much agreed that it doesn’t apply to the capital, Buenos Aires. Whatever indigenous peoples once lived where the city now stands were exterminated a long time ago. And if a survivor can be found, it will be a cold day in Hell before the porteños (residents of the city) give him title to their skyscrapers, apartments, restaurants, and palaces.

You may as well ask New Yorkers to hand over their city to the Delaware Indians or Dakota farmers to give title to their farms to the Sioux. There is wide agreement, too, that it may apply to certain remote areas where indigenous people still live…in much the same way as they always did…over which Westernised laws have never exercised complete dominion.

Somewhere in between is our ranch- where an uninterrupted chain of title leads from the first conquistador in the valley in the 17th century all the way to today, and says your editor is the owner. Nevertheless, egged on and financed by the previous government, and intent on upsetting 400 years of law and local custom, a group of originario activists invaded the ranch.

The whole idea of originarios is a bit of a stretch. No people are indigenous to the Americas. And in our valley, as in Europe and everywhere else, one people came and another went; one invaded and one was subjugated. There were Tiahuanaco, Diaguita, Quechua, and Inca here. The last invaders, the Spanish, arrived only a hundred years or so after the Inca had taken over. Now, there is a mix of people of uncertain provenance, including the owner.

So, when a group calling itself the Diaguita Community tried to take over our ranch, we called the cops. The gendarmes ran them off. A judge later issued an order: They were not to bother us again. But the trouble didn’t stop. And we’re here this week, leaving a daughter to nurse our still-invalid wife.

Stay tuned…

Talking nonsense: Meanwhile, let us turn to some mountains far to the north…and to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. There, at the end of last week, gathered the men and women who decide the world’s monetary policy and supervise its banking system. And there the financial press sat on the edge of their chairs to hear what Fed chair Janet Louise Yellen would say. She hadn’t spoken publicly in the last two months.

Ms Yellen once had such a bright future. She was a spectacular student- at Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, then at Brown, and then at Yale. She always got the highest marks and the greatest accolades. She had such a promising future. Everyone said so. It was such a great opportunity, too.

With over $13 trillion in bonds now yielding less than nothing (thought to be impossible for the last 5,000 years)…

with the economy struggling to make any headway- despite worldwide stimulus on an epic scale (Friday brought news that US GDP grew at an annualised rate of just 1.1% in the second quarter)…

with the median household wage down about 20% (when adjusted properly for inflation) since Yellen joined President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors and began helping shape economic policies…

and with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaking directly to the plain people of the United States of America and telling them that the system is rigged against them!

Ms Yellen has not said publicly who she will vote for in November, but we’ll bet dollars to donuts it is a certain HRC. The last thing she wants is a loose cannon in the White House. Who knows what Donald Trump might do to the Fed if he were elected? At a minimum, he may ask what they think they are doing in the Eccles Building…and how they are spending our money.

Fed fear: Ron Paul famously led an effort in Congress to ‘Audit the Fed’. But he never even got close. Most members of Congress were sufficiently awed by…or afraid of…the brains at the Fed that wouldn’t support him. But Trump? Good lord!

Ms Yellen must have felt the pressure. She must have sensed the opportunity. She had the world’s financial press hanging on her every word. Shouldn’t she say something? Shouldn’t she at least try to explain how things got where they are? Shouldn’t she blame economist Milton Friedman? After all, it was Freidman- the high priest of monetarism- who advised President Nixon to take the US off the gold standard. Or Alan Greenspan; he was the one that began backstopping the stock market? Or Ben Bernanke, with his idiotic ‘Great Moderation’ theory just months before the biggest financial crisis 75 years? And shouldn’t she propose a solution?

‘Central Banker Booby Prize’: But wait… She didn’t have a solution. And she didn’t know why things were so out-of-whack. What could she do? One thing she certainly couldn’t do was announce a return to ‘normalcy’. That would almost surely trigger a stock crash and a depression…and earn her the ‘Central Banker Booby Prize’.

Nope. All she could do was what she did: more blah-blah. Yellen said the case for raising rates had ‘strengthened in recent months.’ She cited the ‘continued solid performance of the labour market’ as a reason for optimism. She didn’t mention that the ‘labour market picture’ she’s looking at- based on the government’s own figures- are heavily photo-shopped, screening out the long term unemployed and adding in fictitious jobs based on various theories and models. And what happens to those nice (though largely fictitious) jobs numbers after you raise rates? Isn’t that the real problem?

Having created a world where businesses and consumers barely have their heads above water…even with the EZ-iest borrowing costs in history, what will happen to them when rates rise? She certainly wasn’t going to bring that up! What else could she do? Poor Janet Yellen. Just look at her…talking nonsense."

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

"Is this what will become of our Milky Way Galaxy? Perhaps if we collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years, it might. Pictured below is NGC 7252, a jumble of stars created by a huge collision between two large galaxies. The collision will take hundreds of millions of years and so is effectively caught frozen in time in the above image. The resulting pandemonium has been dubbed the Atoms-for-Peace galaxy because of its similarity to a cartoon of a large atom.

Click image for larger size.

The above image was taken recently by the MPG/ESO 2.2 meter telescope in Chile. NGC 7252 spans about 600,000 light years and lies about 220 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius). Since the sideways velocity of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is presently unknown, no one really knows for sure if the Milky Way will ever collide with M31."

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”

"I have mentioned here before the ospreys that patrol our beach - or "fish hawks," as they call them here - generally in the afternoon at about the time I take my long walk to the palm point. Magnificent birds with broad wings that glide seemingly effortlessly on the wind. And here's the thing: As often as not I am startled by a bird's shadow before I see the bird itself. That wide-winged shadow, sweeping across the white sand, sometimes across me. That flicker of chill as the osprey blocks the sun.

And generally when it happens I think of Plato's allegory of the cave. Prisoners in a cave are constrained to look only at a blank wall. Somewhere behind them there is a fire, and people come and go in front of the fire, casting shadows on the wall. The shadows are the only reality the prisoners know. They have no idea of the flesh-and-blood people behind them or the blazing fire. The prisoners know only what presents itself to their senses.

Forget for the moment Plato's point, which has to do with the duty of the philosopher to enlighten the benighted. There is a humbling moral to the story for all of us: We can only know what our senses- directly or indirectly- can perceive.

Who, a century ago, could have imagined the universe of the galaxies, or the marvelous dance of the DNA in every cell of our bodies? By cleverly extending our senses- limited as they are- with technological enhancements a whole new universe has opened up to us. Who can imagine what we might know a century from now? Plato's "real" world is like a shadow compared to the universe we inhabit today. Our own universe may be a shadow of a reality vastly more wonderful than anything we have so far dreamed.

Never mind. We live in the world we have. Even the osprey's shadow is magnificent in its own way. I am privileged to lift my eyes and see the feathered bird. And I have an intuition that there is more- much more- yet to see.”

"I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don't want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering idiot cursing the sun- hallucinating, screaming, giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, "Look at that drooling idiot. What a basket case." I will turn and say to them, "It is you who are the basket case! For every moment you hated your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn't even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!" And maybe, the passers by will drop a coin into my cup."

• "Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace? Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.

• Is it not possible to attract only positive conditions into our life? If our attitude and our thinking are always positive, we would manifest only positive events and situations, wouldn't we?

Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative? Do you have the total picture? There have been many people for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and superficial ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility, and compassion. It made them more real.

Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn't.

Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is — which is the only sane way to live— there is no "good" or "bad" in your life anymore. There is only a higher good— which includes the "bad." Seen from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good-bad, like-dislike, love-hate. Hence, in the Book of Genesis, it is said that Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to dwell in "paradise" when they "ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

• This sounds to me like denial and self-deception. When something dreadful happens to me or someone close to me— accident, illness, pain of some kind or death— I can pretend that it isn't bad, but the fact remains that it is bad, so why deny it?

You are not pretending anything. You are allowing it to be as it is, that's all. This "allowing to be" takes you beyond the mind with its resistance patterns that create the positive-negative polarities. It is an essential aspect of forgiveness. Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every moment— allow it to be as it is— then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.

Remember that we are not talking about happiness here. For example, when a loved one has just died, or you feel your own death approaching, you cannot be happy. It is impossible. But you can be at peace. There may be sadness and tears, but provided that you have relinquished resistance, underneath the sadness you will feel a deep serenity, a stillness, a sacred presence. This is the emanation of Being, this is inner peace, the good that has no opposite.

• What if it is a situation that I can do something about? How can I allow it to be and change it at the same time?

Do what you have to do. In the meantime, accept what is. Since mind and resistance are synonymous, acceptance immediately frees you from mind dominance and thus reconnects you with Being. As a result, the usual ego motivations for "doing"— fear, greed, control, defending or feeding the false sense of self— will cease to operate. An intelligence much greater than the mind is now in charge, and so a different quality of consciousness will flow into your doing.

"Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?" This was written 2000 years ago by Marcus Aurelius, one of those exceedingly rare humans who possessed worldly power as well as wisdom.

It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept— before they will forgive. As soon as they do, one of the greatest miracles happens: the awakening of Being- consciousness through what appears as evil, the transmutation of suffering into inner peace. The ultimate effect of all the evil and suffering in the world is that it will force humans into realizing who they are beyond name and form. Thus, what we perceive as evil from our limited perspective is actually part of the higher good that has no opposite. This, however, does not become true for you except through forgiveness. Until that happens, evil has not been redeemed and therefore remains evil.

Through forgiveness, which essentially means recognizing the insubstantiality of the past and allowing the present moment to be as it is, the miracle of transformation happens not only within but also without. A silent space of intense presence arises both in you and around you. Whoever or whatever enters that field of consciousness will be affected by it, sometimes visibly and immediately, sometimes at deeper levels with visible changes appearing at a later time. You dissolve discord, heal pain, dispel unconsciousness— without doing anything— simply by being and holding that frequency of intense presence."

"Perhaps once in a decade, or even once in a generation, a book like "The Power of Now" comes along. It is more than a book; there is a living energy in it, one you can probably feel as you hold it. It has the power to create an experience in readers, and change their lives for the better.

"The Power of Now" was first published in Canada, and the Canadian publisher, Connie Kellough, told me she heard repeated stories of positive changes and even miracles that have happened once people got into the book. "Readers call in," she said. "And so many of them tell me of the wonderful healings, transformations, and increased joy they are experiencing because they have embraced this book." The book makes me aware that every moment of my life is a miracle. This is absolutely true, whether I realize it or not. And "The Power of Now," over and over, shows me how to realize it.

From the first page of his writing, it is clear that Eckhart Tolle is a contemporary master. He is not aligned with any particular religion or doctrine or guru; his teaching embraces the heart, the essence, of all other traditions, and contradicts none of them- Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, indigenous, or anything else. He is able to do what all the great masters have done: to show us, in simple and clear language, that the way, the truth, and the light is within us."

Download "The Power Of Now, A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment," by Eckhart Tolle, here:

"It seems that the Northern Lights season– which typically runs from September to mid-April – has reached Iceland a little early this year, treating islanders to a spectacular celestial display. One minute and 46 seconds of pure serenity, the drone captures every magnificent streak of color as the phenomenon stretches across the night sky. f you ever felt unmotivated to witness the dancing aurora in person, this video is sure to make you reconsider. Shot in Reykjanes, south west Iceland, the only thing left to do is book a ticket."

"Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space"

by Robin Seemangal

"An international team of scientists from the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) are investigating mysterious signal spikes emitting from a 6.3-billion-year-old star in the constellation Hercules–95 light years away from Earth. The implications are extraordinary and point to the possibility of a civilization far more advanced than our own.

The RATAN-600 Radio Telescope in Russia

The unusual signal was originally detected on May 15, 2015 by the Russian Academy of Science-operated RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia but was kept secret from the international community. Interstellar space reporter Paul Gilster broke the story after the researchers quietly circulated a paper announcing the detection of “a strong signal in the direction of HD164595.”

The mysterious star’s designation is HD164595 and it’s considered to be sun-like in nature with a nearly identical metallic composition to our own star. So far, a single Neptune-like (but warmer) planet has been discovered in its orbit–HD 164595 b. But as Gilster explained, “there could, of course, be other planets still undetected in this system.”

Decorated Italian SETI researcher and mathematician Claudio Maccone along with Russia’s Nikolai Bursov of the Special Astrophysical Observatory are the principal scientists working on the apparent discovery. They claim that “permanent monitoring of this target is needed.” “The signal conceivably fits the profile for an intentional transmission from an extraterrestrial source,” says Alan Boyle, author of “The Case for Pluto” who reported thestory for Geekwire. “ In any case, the blip is interesting enough to merit discussion by those who specialize in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI.”

The signal’s strength indicates that if it in-fact came from a isotropic beacon, the power source would have to be built by a Kardashev Type II civilization (The Kardashev scale is used to determine the progress of a civilization’s technological development by measuring how much energy was used to transmit an interstellar message.) An ‘Isotropic’ beacon means a communication source emitting a signal with equal power in all directions while promoting signal strength throughout travel.

Basically, if the signal was beamed out into the galaxy without aim or direction, that would require an enormous amount of power to actually be detected. But what if the signal was beamed specifically at our solar system? Well, that would require less energy and could indicate the presence of a Kardashev Type I civilization–meaning that it could be a highly-technological, contemporary society that harnesses the solar energy emitted by its local star, much like our planet does with solar panels. This particular civilization’s social structure is theorized to be completely globalized and interconnected.

“The signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target,” said Gilster. And that’s exactly what is transpiring. As of last night, the SETI institute is diverting its Allen Telescope Array in northern California to investigate while their counterparts at METI International (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) will utilize Panama’s Boquete Optical Observatory.

The detection of the mysterious signal and the ensuing investigations will be discussed at the IAA SETI Permanent Committee during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, on September 27th."

A Revolutionary Act...

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